Lessons from Revathi's life

Memoirs like Revathi's 2010 'The Truth About Me' are significant not just as personal testimony but also social history

- Somak Ghoshal

The ground reality of being and living as a transgender person is hard to envision for cis-gender people.

(PTI)

On 11 December 2013, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court dealt a body blow to the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in India when they overturned a landmark 2009 judgement by the Delhi high court that had deemed Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code unconstitutional.

It took another five years of protests, appeals and legal arguments for the community to get the apex court to read down this draconian law. As the judgement was being delivered, Justice Indu Malhotra, one member of the bench, made a statement in her concurring opinion that has been widely quoted and shared since.

"History owes an apology to the members of this community and their families, for the delay in providing redressal for the ignominy and ostracism that they have suffered through the centuries," she wrote, referring to the queer community. "The members of this community were compelled to live a life full of fear of reprisal and persecution."

Eight-odd years later, India's queer community is once again confronted with a historic injustice. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026 has just been passed by both houses of Parliament. President Draupadi Murmu gave her assent on 30 March, making it law. However, large gatherings of LGBTQ+ community members and their allies oppose it because the Act undermines one of the fundamental rights of trans people: the right to self-determination of their gender identity.

For cis-gendered people, the idea of gender fluidity may be difficult to grasp. Even if it makes sense theoretically, the ground reality of being and living as a transgender person is hard to envision. The problem is accentuated by stereotypical depictions of trans people—mostly trans women who are the more visible members of the community—in popular culture, media and mythologies.